Latest Development of IP5 Projects at SIPO’s end

Latest Statistics

The number of patent applications received by the State Intellectual Property Office of China (SIPO) continued to increase in 2014. Throughout the year, SIPO received a total number of 2,361,000 applications for invention patents, utility model and industrial design, of which 928,000 were applications for invention patents, representing a yearly increase of 12.5%. SIPO received 26,000 PCT (12.2% of the world's total) applications in 2014. This shows a year-on-year increase of 14.2%.

Latest Development on IP Laws and Policies

The Chinese government attaches great importance to innovation and IP and has made significant efforts to establish a sound environment for business venture and public innovation, so as to provide strong support for promoting the quality and efficiency of its national economy. In December 2014, the State Council published the Action Plan for Deepening the Implementation of the National IP Strategy (2014-2020). For the first time in history, the Action Plan brought forward the new objective of "building up strong IP competence for China". Recently, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council jointly published the Several Opinions on Deepening Reform of Systems and Mechanisms and Accelerating the Implementation of the National Strategy on Innovation-Driven Development, which stated that the IP system should be deemed as the primary incentive of innovation and reiterated that a more stringent IP protection system will be implemented. Last August, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a decision to establish specialized IP courts in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to enhance judicial protection to IP.

Recently, SIPO has been actively pushing forward a new round of comprehensive amendment to the Patent Law. SIPO officially published the draft amendment to the Patent Law on April 1st for public comments.

Latest development of SIPO

1. Enhanced patent examination quality and efficiency

SIPO completed the examination of 431,000 applications for invention patents in 2014, increased by 22.9% as compared with the previous year. The pendency period has been reduced to 21.8 months.

2. Active efforts in promoting utilization of patents

In 2014, the amount of financing raised through patent pledge was RMB 48.9 billion, increased by 92.5% compared with the previous year, benefiting 1,850 SMEs and micro-enterprises. Patent insurance services were extended to 798 enterprises around China.

3. Enhanced IP protection

In 2014, the total number of cases solved through patent administrative enforcement was 24,479, representing a year-on-year increase of 50.9%. The social satisfaction rate on patent protection has been further promoted.

4. Further the reform on systems and mechanisms for IP administration

An agency for integrated IP administration and enforcement is established in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. The Pudong New Area established an agency for integrated IP administration.

5. Focus on optimizing services to right holders and the public

In 2014, SIPO launched the Experimental System for Patent Data Services which provided free download of the latest IP5 patent data of recent 30 days. SIPO also introduced the IP5 PPH pilot program and made progress on the initiative of common PPH request form, which were well-reviewed by its IP5 peers.